Music Is More than Life

From August 14 to September 12 in the Music and Audiovisual documents reading room (room 305) an exhibition "Music is more than life" , dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), is hold.

Leonard Bernstein, a talented composer and conductor, pianist, educator, enlighter, became one of the most outstanding music luminary of the 20th century. He wrote music of various genres: musicals, operas, ballets, symphonies, instrumental pieces, vocal cycles. The music of the composer is bright and distinctive, its characteristic feature is polystylistics. It freely combines elements of jazz, blues, echoes of Latin American rhythms, Negro folklore, ancient Jewish chants, compositional techniques of music of the XX century. Leonard Bernstein is called the reformer of the musical, who transformed it from a light and comedic work into a quite serious, dramatic genre of musical art.

In addition to composing, Leonard Bernstein went down in history as an outstanding conductor. He led the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for 10 years and became the first conductor from the United States to receive worldwide recognition.

All his life, L. Bernstein was engaged in the education of youth, he tried to cultivate in people the love of music: he lectured at universities, regularly appeared on television, wrote several books on musical art.

The exposition introduces music books by Leonard Bernstein “Peter Pan”, “Missa Brevis”, “Divertimento for orchestra”, “Four Anniversaries” and others.

The audio documents presented at the exhibition give an opportunity to listen to the Chichester Psalms, the "West Side Story" musical, the symphonies "Kaddish" and "The Age of Anxiety". There are also works by various composers, performed by the orchestra under auspices of L. Bernstein.

The exposition of Leonard Bernstein's book "Young People’s Concerts", "The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard", as well as articles about the composer's work published in periodicals.

The opening hours of the exhibition corresponds to the library’s opening hours.
Entrance to the exhibition is available by the library ticket or ticket of the library's social and cultural center.

For more info: +375 (17) 293 27 52.